The Vultures of Moyar

By Anoop NR With a featherless head and neck along with a large hooked beak, vultures have unique adaptations for scavenging dead animals. Vultures play a vital role in many ecological processes such as eliminating carcasses, controlling the number of other scavengers and epidemic pathogens. They are in severe decline across the globe due to…

Moyar: The Raptor Valley of the Western Ghats

By Anoop NR The Moyar River valley   About 30 km east of Udagamandalam (Ooty) in the Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu resides a dramatic landscape of the Western Ghats – the Moyar Valley. This valley is an ecologically outstanding region of the Western Ghats and home to a variety of flora and fauna. Nestled in…

Memorable Monsters: Herds and Heroes of Hurdle at Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary

By Rani Saggere On the 25th of April 2017, the memory of the toughest tuskers in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary was etched in my heart forever. It was my first ever experience in the wild. Owing to the little background research of Cauvery region, I was aware of the wild animals dwelling around in the area…

Erappinkara has lost its sound

By Jyoti Nair The heavy rains came late this year, transforming much of South India into a lush green landscape.  But just a few months ago South India was in the throes of drought. Rainfall deficit of more than 60% last year had severely affected several districts including my home town in Kilimanoor in Thiruvanthapuram…

Graffiti

  Ecologists are often accused of tunnel vision, as they are unable to see the broader social, economic and political forces that had, and are actually shaping the problems they study. Political ecology takes into consideration these forces, thereby forming a contextual, holistic approach to the ecological problems, rather than a compartmentalized approach. Even in…